why not collect the co2

[John Woodriffe]

Is anyone collecting the co2 off their fementer and using it to prime their kegs?.  Is there enough co2 to do the job? is there a reason why not?

[James P]

Whilst I do not harvest my CO2 (like the Germans) I have seen it attempted. The issue the guy had was getting the CO2 back into solution in an efficient way. He collected the CO2 in a large "balloon", then had his beer out connector on his corney keg screwed on without the valve in it, and reattached the balloon.

In the end he reverted to force carbing from cylinder as it didn't have enought bubbles for him. The theory is sound.

[jt]

he reverted to force carbing

Yea, you probably have an issue with getting your co2 under enough presure to force back into the beer

Do you also have to 'scrub' or clean the co2 as well ?

[Chris Banks]

Without compressing it I cant see it being used for carbonation but using it to purge kegs,secondarys and bottles etc before filling/racking might work?

[James P]

Tony didn't, he just put the balloon on the keg. His idea was to squeeze the balloon.... probably a little misguided, but worth the experiment.

I would have thought that CO2 from the beer would have been reasonably "clean".

[John Woodriffe]

im thinking the co2 could be bumped out of the ballon with one of those little dry 12volt tyier bumps into a holding tank. those little pumps bump about 120psi